The Fire is Coming (So I Think We Should Run)
by MaliceInWonderland23
Summary: (au) After an unplanned, very unfortunate series of events, Skye ends up stuck with Ward as they zigzag across the country, blowing up HYDRA bases along the way.


**Title: **the fire is coming (so I think we should run)**  
Category:** Agents of SHIELD  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre: **Romance/Drama/Angst  
**Characters: **Skye, Grant, Coulson, May, Trip, Fitz, Simmons, Bobbi, Lance, everyone else in team Playground,  
**Pairings: **Skye/Grant, Leo/Jemma (hinted), May/Coulson (hinted), Lance/Bobbi (hinted),  
**Summary: **(au) After an unplanned, very unfortunate series of events, Skye ends up stuck with Ward as they zigzag across the country, blowing up HYDRA bases along the way.  
**Warnings: **Some blood, some love, some language, some snark, mentions of abortion  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything but the idea.**  
Author's Notes: **This is a COMPLETE au, so please don't review telling me that it doesn't follow canon. It completely disregards anything happening in season 2. Also, I watch a lot of shows with little towns and will probably throw in anonymous cameos, but you don't have to watch those shows to understand. Also, the song in the title is **"Run" by Daughter**. I think it fits.

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Skye propped her feet up on the dashboard, one hand resting on her gun. They had stopped in a Maine small town for gas. It was called some really sweet, fantasy-like name (Storybrooke, she thought) and the population dwindled below ten-thousand. A blonde woman and a handsome man were holding hands and walking outside her window and _sigh, _she wished she could be like them. Why couldn't she have nice things? Skye bet that their lives weren't as fucked up as hers, and that they weren't constantly in mortal danger; she bet that they didn't have to worry about their families being killed if they blinked.

"Okay, we're good," Ward confirmed, closing the door of the car and pulling out onto Main Street. Skye, as she had been for the past few days, ignored him. "Skye, sweetheart—"

"Sweetheart? You're calling me sweetheart now?" she growled, cutting him off. _Sweetheart my ass_.

"Skye—" Grant began again, but she hushed him.

"Park here."

He did as she said, parking outside of Granny's diner. She began to open the door, but Grant reached over, brushing his fingers over her hand and _dammit, Skye. You aren't supposed to still feel this way_. "Skye, what are you doing?"

She gestured to the sign. "Diner and inn. We've been driving for three days straight eating nothing but candy bars. I'm going to contact the team and we're going to form a plan, and then we're going to sleep. In separate rooms."

When she was little, Skye used to wish that she had friends and that they could all just drive cross-country, not the slightest idea where they were going or what was going to happen. But, when she was little she didn't know about HYDRA growing inside of the government.

So, she opened the car door and stormed inside, alarming a couple with a baby. Most everyone in the restaurant turned to stare at her, but Skye just smiled politely and headed towards the booth in the back. Grant followed, sitting across from her.

"Skye, I know—"

"Can I get you guys anything?" a waitress asked, holding out her order pad.

"In a minute," Grant said just as Skye answered, "definitely."

The waitress, whose name tag read "Ruby" looked between the two.

"A burger with everything on it," Skye ordered. "And fries."

"Anything to drink?" Ruby asked. "We make pretty good hot chocolate."

Skye shook her head. "Can I get a milkshake?"

Ruby nodded. "Sure. Anything for you?" she asked Grant.

"Turkey sub on whole wheat," he ordered. Once Ruby had left, he resumed talking. "Skye, I know you're worried."

Trying to keep her voice low, she whisper-shouted back at them. "_Worried?_ I'm stuck in a town called _Storybrooke_ with a _friggin HYDRA agent_ with nothing but a gun and twenty-bucks. My team is currently wondering where I am since you kidnapped me, you dumped my two best friends into the ocean, and I'm starving. So maybe I'm a little more that—"

"Hi."

The duo turned their heads to see a mop-haired kid staring at them. "Hi," Skye greeted as Grant visibly tensed.

"My name's Henry."

Skye looked at him for a second. "Uh, I'm Lea. And this is my…" What should she say? Fiancé? Brother? Husband? "…my boyfriend, Doug." That was his middle name, right? Douglas?

"What brings you to Storybrooke?" the kid asked.

Skye scrambled for a cover story. "Road trip. Cross country."

"Cool. Where you headed next?"

Geez. Couldn't this kid mind his own business? "Down to New York," Grant answered. "Gonna see the Statue of Liberty, maybe see a ball-game."

"I used to live in New York," Henry said. Both Grant and Skye could tell that there was more than he was letting on, but he was a kid, so they ignored it.

"Hey, kid. Do you know where I can get a room?"

Henry nodded. "Sure. I'll get my mom to get one for you."

After another ten minutes of stony glares, the blonde woman that Skye saw earlier handed her a key. "Sheriff Swan."

"Lea. This is my boyfriend Doug."

"Hope you enjoy your stay," the Sheriff said. "Welcome to Storybrooke."

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After eating their food, "Lea" and "Doug" headed up to their room (Skye had realized too late that it was a single room with a single bed; her cover story made it sound like they slept in the same bed all the time). It was…quaint, with old lady wallpaper and quilted bedspreads.

"What's our plan?" Skye asked.

"It's a quiet town," Grant said. "Quiet enough for us to stick around for a little before we actually act."

"I'm calling Simmons—" she decided, taking a cell-phone out of her pocket, but Grant was quicker. He yanked it out of her hand and threw it on the floor, stepping on it. "What. The. Fuck."

"They might have a tracker inside of it," he explained. Her phone was given to her by S.H.I.E.L.D., which was overrun with HYDRA at the time.

"Fine," Skye huffed. "I'm going to need clothes and tampons. I'm going out to get those. Alone."

So she grabbed her jacket and slammed the door, heading down the hall to run straight into a woman in dark clothing. "Do you know, by chance, of any clothing stores around here?"

She smiled. "I do. Just go down the street. There's a general store a block down that has a section of clothing."

"Thanks," Skye said. She headed down the street, flipping her hood up and getting glances from all the people on the street. The town must not have gotten many visitors.

She entered the general store and grabbed a basket. She picked out a few apples, a pack of bottled water, batteries, and a few personal items (a toothbrush, a pack of ponytails, etc.) before heading to the clothes section. There wasn't much to choose from, but she did find a few tee shirts in her size, socks, and a hoodie. On her way to the register, she looked for a disposable cell phone to no avail.

"Will this be all?" the bored looking man at the register asked. "If you spend another fifty cents, you get a coupon."

"Um…" Skye looked around, finding a post card and slapping it down on the counter. "I'll take this too."

"That'll be twenty dollars even."

"Really?" Skye asked. "Only twenty dollars?"

"Yup," he said.

"Okay."

Skye dug out a crumpled bill and placed it on the counter. "Thank you," he said. "Come back soon."

She walked as fast as she could from the monotonous weirdo. Everyone in this town was weird. This town was just _weird_ in general.

She unlocked the door to the room, storming in and tossing her things on the bed.

"I'll take the floor," Ward said.

Skye dug a toothbrush out of her bag. "Don't forget to brush those pearly whites. Make sure you wash out all the blood while I clean the taste of vomit out of my mouth."

Ward gave her a look that she challenged, but he finally sighed and went to brush his teeth.

Once he was out of the bathroom, Skye took her turn. She heard a click as she washed her face and turned around to find that Ward was loading a gun. He put it under his pillow on the floor while Skye squeezed some of the toothpaste onto her brush. He lay down on the floor as she crawled into bed.

Once the light was turned out, Skye shuffled onto her side and looked at the man on the floor next to her. "Hey Ward?"

"Yes?"

"If you kill me in my sleep, I'll haunt your ass."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"…"

"Skye, I would never hurt you."

She smiled wickedly at the ceiling. "Too late."

And then she slept.

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The next morning, she woke up (cheers to being alive) to find Ward, shirtless, doing sit ups.

She changed into one of the tee shirts, keeping her jeans from yesterday on. "I'm getting breakfast. Want anything?"

"Egg white omelet," he answered.

"Okay then," she mumbled, heading into the hall and downstairs. Once there, she sat down at the counter and ordered pancakes and a huge side of bacon. "Oh, and an egg white omelet to go."

"Your boyfriend still upstairs?" Granny asked. Skye frowned. The only person she told that to was the kid…yesterday.

"Um…yeah. Heavy sleeper."

"Mm-hmm," the old lady replied. She looked unconvinced by Skye's words, but left to go get her food. After she had finished, she took the foam takeout container upstairs. "Ward!" she called. "Ward?"

She looked around the corner of the bathroom to find him showering.

"Oh my _god!_" she exclaimed, running out and slamming the door behind her. Why the _hell_ had he left the door open? He was trying to screw with her mind, almost positively.

Once he had exited the shower (with only a towel, for god's sake), he asked her what the plan was.

"We should leave," she said. "Today. This town is getting creepy."

He shrugged, pulling on a tee-shirt. "Whatever you say. Plus, there's a HYDRA base in upstate New York."

Skye, who had previously lay down on the bed with only her legs dangling off, sat back up. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Well, not because we're going to join them. The opposite, actually."

Skye raised an eyebrow. "No way I trust you to take me to a HYDRA base. Not after everything that happened."

What had happened, actually, was Skye and Coulson going to bomb a base and only Coulson leaving. Ward had nabbed her and a beat up car and driven them all the way to fucking Maine. _Maine_.

"Skye," Ward said. "If I wanted to kill you, I would've already."

Nope. No way. La la la la la. "That's not as comforting as you might think. I am not going into a base full of monsters so that they can torture me for information."

Ward frowned. "You can stay in the car?"

"I am not going anywhere near a HYDRA base! _Get that through your fucking head_."

"How can I prove I won't hurt you, Skye?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "You can't."

Something landed next to her on the bed. "Shoot me."

Skye made a face. "Nice try, but we're in a motel. There are people on the other side of _that wall_, and _that wall_, and probably the door listening to us."

"Fine, then, what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to take me back to the base."

"I can't do that."

"Then I want you to let me call Coulson. And when this whole thing is done, I want you to swear that you'll turn yourself in."

After a moment of hesitation, he nodded. "Okay."

"Good."

Skye packed up her things in the bag while Ward ate, and then both of them headed downstairs. He paid for the hotel room while she unlocked the car.

They drove down to New York, she controlled the music and told him which direction to go in and he drove.

Miles of road stretched ahead of them.

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"Are you ready?" Ward asked Skye. Both of them were standing near the warehouse- slash- HYDRA base. Ward was holding two loaded guns and Skye had a bag full of grenades at the ready.

She nodded. "Yup."

"Good."

He kicked down the door and began shooting as many agents as he could. "Watch out!" Skye called. He turned around to see an agent charging at him. The woman had a hold of his throat before he could move, but there was a loud bang and she collapsed onto the ground. Skye stood behind her, gun raised as she stared at the woman in shock. "I killed her," she whispered.

Ward understood why she looked like a deer caught in headlights. It was her first kill.

He wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss on top of her head. Every part of his brain was screaming for him to move, but he needed Skye alive for Coulson to not murder him as soon as the two came into somewhat close proximity.

"It's okay, sweetheart, but we need to keep moving."

Skye nodded and wiped away a bit of dampness in her eyes. "Okay."

They moved onto the next room—Skye hurled a grenade into it—and the next—which Skye also hurled a grenade into. Within an hour, the base was completely on fire and the two of them were making their escape.

They jammed it to the car and hopped in. The tires screeched as Ward backed away and back onto the road. He slammed his foot on the gas pedal and headed down the road.

"I killed her," Skye whispered from the passenger seat, looking down at the blood on her hands. "I shot her right in the head."

Seeing that his partner was a complete emotional mess, he pulled over. "Skye…"

She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, sobbing into his chest softly. "I'm a terrible person," she cried. "I killed her."

She had killed a lot of people, Ward wanted to say, but there was a difference between throwing a grenade into a room and aiming a gun and pulling the trigger. "Skye, you are not a bad person, okay?"

"I've killed someone."

"So have I."

Bad bad _bad _choice of words. She pulled away from him, bringing her knees to her chest and hugging them, shielding herself from the man on the opposite side of the car. "I'm a monster," she said in revelation. "I…I'm a monster like you."

He extended an arm towards her but she backed away, slamming her back into the door of the car.

"Don't touch me," she growled, fumbling for the door handle and slipping out. God, she was so confused. She was snapping at Ward when she was mad at herself and now she was…walking down a quiet road, all alone with a defunct grenade in her pocket. After twenty or so more steps, she collapsed onto the ground and began to cry. She heard footsteps behind her and snuck a look at the approaching man. Monster. Man. Monster. The man _is _the monster, she realized.

He wrapped his arms around her.

She didn't push him away this time, instead allowing herself to succumb to the sweet nothings he whispered in her ear. "It's okay, sweetheart. It's okay. Shh…shh…Skye. Listen to me. You are a wonderful person. You are not bad. You are a good person, okay? The woman you killed, she might have killed more people. You were avenging them. You're a good person, okay Skye? You're the best person I know."

The pain, the confusion, the exhaustion, all of it caused her to blank out eventually. She heard him whisper three torturous lies into her ear before her instinct took over.

"I love you."

She couldn't tell if they were real or not.

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Six months later and the two of them had crossed eight HYDRA bases off the map. They were now in California with a new (stolen) car.

She trusted him, halfway. She wouldn't trust him completely until he took her back to the Playground, to Coulson (who she was regularly updating) and to her family. She wanted to see for herself that Fitz was okay and that Jemma had survived going undercover in HYDRA (a base that they made sure not to destroy).

"I got you fries," Ward said. The car was parked at Santa Monica and they were leaning against the hood, staring off into the sunset.

"My hero," Skye retorted, plucking a few out of the bag.

It took her a month and a half to go back to normal (after everything that happened at that base, including a monster possibly declaring love for her, which she hadn't yet addressed). She was more scared of the fact that she was okay with killing than killing itself. When she asked Ward how he got through it, he answered, "You have to think about all the good you could be doing…all the lives you're saving, all the people you're avenging."

Skye had nodded and gone to sleep.

She had nightmares, about her killing Coulson and Fitz-Simmons and May and people that she really cared about. They still hadn't disappeared, but they were less frequent and as good a reminder as anything that she needed to watch herself.

It was hard, really, to think that at some point, she had become the weapon. A gun didn't have emotions, but a human did, and with all that power…nothing good could come.

"Hey Ward," Skye said, looking at him through her plastic heart shaped sunglasses (from a cool little store in San Francisco).

"Yes, Skye?"

"I want to go home."

He looked at her sympathetically. It looked foreign; bizarre, almost. "Sweetheart, we can't. You know that. There are only two more bases on our list."

Skye knew.

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"Let's move," Ward whispered as he and Skye headed into a HYDRA base below a grocery store. How did the people not notice this? Skye didn't know.

There were civilians in a close proximity, so instead of actual bombs, the duo were armed with gas grenades.

Skye hurled one down the stairs, breathing through her mask. She sounded like she had just after waking up from getting shot. Simmons had put her on a breathing treatment. The drugs she had to inhale tasted vaguely like orange soda.

Ward cleared out any survivors with his rifle and they moved on. The process was repeated a few more times and then the two of them shoved their masks into her purse before walking through the frozen aisle contently. It was frightening how they had adapted to the routine so quickly.

"Excuse me?" a pretty woman asked. She was tall. "I love your bag. Where'd you get it?"

"Um…" Skye stuttered. "…in a little store I stopped at in Arizona."

"Wow," the woman gushed. "Can you give me the name? I'd like to find it online."

Skye hesitated, but Ward filled in for her. "It's called Sedona's Gifts and Souvenirs."

The woman took out a notepad, scribbling down the name. Skye looked over her shoulder. "Is it like this?" she asked.

Scrawled on the paper was _Coulson Playground_. Covering her shock, Skye smiled and nodded. "Yup. That's perfect. Have a nice day."

"You too."

She left and Ward slapped a pack of gum onto the conveyor belt.

"Seventy-seven cents," the perky woman said. Ward handed her a dollar.

"Keep the change."

Once they were in the car, Ward turned to Skye. "Who the hell was that?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked him, feigning ignorance.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about."

"Easy, Ward, just let it go."

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Before they hit the last base they got drunk. And then she kissed him sloppily, completely wasted after the amount of drinks she ingested. He was drunk too, having downed too many whiskey shots.

He kissed her back. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she smiled against his mouth. She tugged him towards their motel bed and he let her.

She woke up naked the next morning.

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They didn't talk about their night together.

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The last base went smoothly, not at all as climactic as Skye expected. Except, as she was running away from the building, she vomited all over the face of a now-deceased HYDRA agent.

"Shit," she mumbled, and kept running.

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They stopped at a gas station to fill up before making the journey across the country, back to the safety of the Playground.

As he filled up the car outside, she made an excuse about needing water. In the little mini-mart, she purchased a bottle of water and a pregnancy test.

As soon as she actually needed to, Skye found it to be utterly hard to urinate. But then she thought about what might happen if she actually was pregnant with Ward's child and pissed herself in fear. Oh Jesus, Coulson was going to kick her to the curb. She was going to be all alone with the child of a man she thought she hated. Did she hate him? Did she love him? Yes. No. No. Yes. Neither. Both.

In her panic, the minutes had flown by and her phone buzzed.

She glanced at the little stick.

Two pink lines.

It had to be a mistake. It absolutely had to be a mistake. She could not be pregnant. She could not be pregnant. In the past seven months, she had obliterated ten HYDRA bases, leaving completely unscathed except for a bullet wound to the arm that had healed and a few scrapes.

But the one time she gets drunk and has sex, she gets pregnant?

She rushed out of the bathroom and bought four more tests, one of the same brand and three different ones, being on all three and leaving them on the floor.

The first said pregnant.

Pregnant, said the second.

Pregnant, declared the third.

And the fourth, ding ding ding, told her she was pregnant. She bought another one (leaving her with a dollar fifty in her pocket) and ran it under the sink, wanting so badly to believe that it was some sort of defect.

Not pregnant.

Shit.

_Shit. _

There was another human being inside of her. Would Coulson or the others force her to abort it?

No, they wouldn't do that. She had the right to choose what she wanted, and while she didn't want to have to brave the oncoming storm, she knew it was what she wanted to keep it.

_Adoption_, a voice in her head reminded her.

She had grown up in the system. It was unpleasant. But there were plenty of families out there that really wanted children. Plus, she was no mother.

She hadn't even realized that she had started crying.

She didn't know how to be mother—she'd never had one herself.

But she thought about it, really hard, and she knew that it would be harder for her to give up the baby than to keep it.

She couldn't believe it. She was going to have a baby. _His _baby.

"Skye!" he called, knocking on the door. "You in there?"

She swallowed, trying to remove the syrup from her throat. "Yeah!" she called back. "Almost done!"

She bunched the pregnancy tests up and shoved them in her jacket pocket. He didn't need to know. Not yet.

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"Stop!" she moaned. Ward looked over at her and pulled onto the side of the road. She flung her door open and began to vomit, the bile leaving an ugly taste in her mouth.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered. "I just ate some street food a few towns back and then I…uh…probably got sick. It's nothing."

For a highly trained analytical agent, Ward seemed not to connect the dots. He believed her excuses about being tired and just missing the team and having a stomach bug. He stopped at a pharmacy and got her medicine.

_Hey_, she thought, _at least he trusts you_.

Three days later, they arrived at the Playground. Ward surrendered himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Skye watched as they carried him away in handcuffs.

"You!" she cried. The woman from the store was there.

"Bobbi Morse," she introduced.

"Skye," she responded.

"Skye!" Fitz-Simmons yelled in unison. They both flung their arms around her. "We have so much to talk about."

Suddenly, Skye pulled away and retched on the floor.

"Might want to talk about that too…" Bobbi said with a cringe. Skye hurled again, the vomit beginning to form a puddle.

"Are you sick?" Simmons asked her.

May appeared out of nowhere, wrapping an arm around Skye's shoulders with uncharacteristic affection. "She's not sick."

The older woman led the younger one towards a bathroom where she continued to vomit.

"I'm going to kill the son of a bitch," May swore as she held Skye's hair. Simmons and Bobbi watched from the doorway, unsure of how exactly to help.

"No!" Skye objected. "It was my fault. I think. Or maybe both of our faults. God…I don't even remember any of it. I was drunk. He was drunk too." She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and began to sob against May's shoulder. The woman hugged her (which was really, _really_ weird) and she hugged her back, allowing herself to enjoy the feeling of a mother.

"Are you going to keep it?" May asked.

Skye nodded. "Yeah. I want to keep it."

"Are you going to tell him?" May asked.

Skye shrugged. "I didn't get the chance." Lie.

"Do you want to?"

"I want him to know, but I don't know if I want to tell him. I just…" She just…what? Was afraid? Was nervous? Was what?

"Jemma," May ordered, "tell Ward."

May led Skye away to a room for her to rest.

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"Fitz-Simmons," Ward greeted.

"Did you and Skye get drunk?" Fitz blurted.

Ward looked between the two scientists.

"Answer the question!" Jemma barked, slapping her fist against the interrogation table.

"Yes," he said reluctantly. "Once. Why?"

Jemma leaned back, fighting off tears. Ward was a monster. And now he was a father, too.

"She's pregnant," Jemma whispered.

Ward's jaw fell to the floor, and he took his time in picking it up. "Is it mine?"

"Did she have sex with anyone else recently?"

Ward shook his head slowly, cautiously. "I don't think so."

"Then _yes_, Ward, Skye is carrying your child."

His child.

Her child.

He didn't know how to be a father. His parents were awful. His entire _family_ was awful actually. He didn't know how…would he even get the chance?

"You will be undergoing a series of tests," Jemma said, having composed herself, "to see if you can be trusted. Skye has full control over what happens to the baby, do you understand?"

"Absolutely," Ward answered immediately. "Absolutely."

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He passed the tests. Skye watched him through the monitors, rubbing her now-swollen belly.

She wanted to congratulate him, but she didn't trust herself around him. Not yet.

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"Skye?"

He had a scruffy beard now. She hated it. He looked…weird. He didn't look like Ward.

"Hi," she answered softly, one arm rubbing her stomach.

His gaze was glued to her torso. "I'm so sorry," he said, finally looking her in the eyes. "God, Skye, I am so, _so_ sorry that I did this. I understand if you don't want me anywhere near—"

"Fuck no," she hissed. "You knocked me up, which, okay, yeah, my fault too, but I have been eating and vomiting and carrying another human inside of me for eight months. You're going to help me with this. You do _not _get off that easily."

He broke out into a smile. "Okay."

She smiled back, eyes watering up. "Okay."

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"Get up," Coulson demanded, bursting into Ward's cell.

"What? Why?"

He knew why.

Coulson sent him a look that told him to shut up and move, so he did, with Mack on one side and Trip on the other.

The four men walked as quickly as they could to the makeshift delivery room, but Ward stopped when a loud cry broke through the air.

"Let's go, man," Trip ordered, attempting to drag him along.

"I can't," Ward choked out. "I can't do this."

Trip stared at him for a moment, face a mix of shock and anger. And then, he raised his arm and slapped him. "Are you shitting me? You have a beautiful woman in there, terrified as she gives birth to _your child_. If you do not get your ass in there _right now_, I'm going to blow your face off with my gun."

Ward stared in horror at Trip before continuing to move.

Mack, Coulson, and Trip broke off as Ward was handed a set of scrubs and thrust into the delivery room. "Wait," Coulson called.

"Yes, sir?" Ward answered.

"Don't hurt my baby girl," Coulson said in a low, menacing tone.

"Never again," Grant swore.

He turned into the room. Simmons was delivering the baby and May's hand was being gripped by Skye's.

He quickly took her spot and allowed Skye to dig his nails into his hand.

"I'm going to _fucking murder you_," she hissed.

"That's good," Simmons said, breathing rapidly as another contraction hit Skye. "Okay. It's time to push."

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Simmons swung the curtain open into the waiting room. "The baby is doing okay, so are the parents. Skye has delivered a healthy baby girl that weighs five pounds, seven ounces. I'm having one of the nurses clean her up, but when the parents say so, you should be able to come visit."

Bobbi smiled, glad that the young agent and her child were okay.

A little while later, they were allowed to visit.

"What're you naming her?" Bobbi asked.

"What about Lola?" Coulson suggested. Skye shot him a look.

"What about Ruby?" Ward mumbled, looking over at Skye. Skye vaguely remembered the waitress, but, she supposed, that creepy little Maine town was the beginning of everything.

"I like that name," Skye mumbled back. She pecked him on the lips before looking down adoringly at her daughter. "Hi, Ruby."

Their beautiful child, with her mop of brown hair and her brown eyes, squirmed a little. She was so new to the world. She was just beginning.

She was _a _beginning.

She was _their _new beginning.

**A/N: **I know the part about abortion and adoption might have been sensitive for some readers. I am so sorry if I offended anyone. I wanted to try and respect everyone's beliefs and not try and change your opinions or anything. When I wrote about Skye, I wrote about what I believed her character would do after all of this development. I am most certainly not trying to oppose anyone's positions on these topics, because we all have the right to an opinion. My goal here was to depict a character's thoughts about her situation, not offend you.

I would appreciate it if you would leave a review with your opinion on the story. It took me a while to write it and I want to know what you thought.


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